


When Life Gives You Lemons...

by Iggysassou



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Based on a Tumblr Post, Canon Disabled Character, Charles Makes Terrible Puns, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Charles in a Wheelchair, Erik Has Feelings, Erik is a Sweetheart, Erik too - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 22:32:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7988521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iggysassou/pseuds/Iggysassou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the day of the Pride parade in London, a police officer proposes to his unaware boyfriend who immediately accepted, much to the crowd's excitement, and pictures of the proposal soon go viral.</p><p>Charles would be very happy for the couple if one of them didn't happen to be his ex. When the news are still talking about it a week later, Charles is set on never watching the news again until he discovers a man called Erik has made a tweet asking the Internet to please stop sharing the pictures because the police officer happens to be <i>his</i> ex. Amused that someone else shares his misfortunes, Charles replies to the man on Twitter and soon the Internet demands that they get together. </p><p>What about a cup of coffee first?</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Life Gives You Lemons...

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this post I found on Tumblr the other day: https://randomstufffromotherblogs.tumblr.com/post/148687176672/ashleytrashly-this-au-for-your-otp
> 
> I thought it could be fun to write it with Charles and Erik as the two ex boyfriends because why not!

_"... As you'll certainly remember, the highlight of this year's Pride parade occurred when one of the police officer broke ranks from the parade to walk over to his unaware boyfriend and proposed to him much to the crowd’s excitement..."_

Charles sighed at the TV and grabbed the remote to change channel for a few minutes, not exactly interested in hearing _once again_ the wonderful tale of his ex-boyfriend being proposed to on camera. It had been well over five days now; couldn't they drop the topic already? Surely there were more important events to report. He could understand the appeal to this story, it was an incredibly romantic proposal, and he was glad that people rejoiced in watching a man propose to his boyfriend in front of a crowd, but it was a little painful for him to watch it every time he wanted to watch the news.

When he came back on the news channel in the hope that they had moved onto another topic, he found the anchors still talking about the proposal so he lowered the volume and reached for his book but paused when he realised the pictures of the happily couple had been replaced by a screenshot taken from Twitter. Charles scowled, expecting a hateful message, but then he read the tweet and couldn’t help a smile at what was written.

> “If people could stop retweeting that picture of my ex proposing to his current boyfriend, that would be great. – MagneticHands”

**_Ah, so I'm not the only one to suffer from this_** , Charles thought with an amusement. Curious to know more about the man who shared his misfortune, he rolled up to his computer to turn it on and opened a Twitter tab on his browser. The screenshot shown on the news didn't let much on about the man but Charles found his account less than a minute later with only a few key words. The poor man's tweet was all over Twitter, with people either sympathising with him or laughing at him, so it had been quite easy for him to track it down.

According to his short bio, the man was called Erik, he was a mutant activist, an engineer and loved to play chess. Much to his disappointment, there was no picture of him, but Charles could not blame him for wanting some privacy on the Internet. He hesitated, his pointer hovering over the 'see more' button, then curiosity got the better of him and he started going through Erik's older tweets, suddenly very interested in learning more about him. Erik seemed strong opinionated and was a fervent mutant right activist, which pleased Charles greatly even though he rolled his eyes at some of the debatable opinions he seemed to have. He could understand that some humans were a bit… rude and mean-spirited, but talking was far more effective than fighting. Just as he was about to leave the page, the man posted another tweet and Charles chuckled upon reading it.

> "Lovely to see how pictures were not enough for the Internet and now I'm presented with the video of the proposal everywhere. - MagneticHands”

Charles could relate to that; he was tired of his ex’s happiness being shoved in his face constantly. Feeling a little bold, he clicked on the reply button and hesitated for a second before deciding to write to him. He already felt better knowing he was not the only one suffering from this event though so maybe Erik would feel better too knowing someone shared his feelings.

Going over his message one last time to make sure there were no mistakes and that he didn't sound desperate or overbearing, Charles finally hit the sent button and all but fled his computer, as any grown adult would do after messaging a stranger on the Internet. He didn't know if he would get a reply, he honestly didn’t expect one, but he felt nervous nonetheless and as he made his way to the kitchen to get himself something to eat, Charles started regretting sending the message. Why had he thought telling a complete stranger that his ex was engaged to _his_ ex was a good idea? And why on earth had he started his message with a pun on _chess_ of all things? The man would never reply to such a stupid message. Not that Charles _wanted_ him to reply. They didn’t have any reason to talk, except for the fact that their exes happened to be in love and on national news. Sure, Erik was a mutant activist like him, yes he seemed to like chess as well, but loads of people were like that and Charles didn't bother them. He didn’t even know what the man looked like and Erik might very well be pretending to be the police officer’s ex to create a buzz.

The oven timer going off thankfully pulled him out of his thoughts and Charles startled in reaction before chiding himself mentally. It was ridiculous of him to get so flustered for sending a message. The worst that could happen was the man telling him to fuck off, which was definitely something Charles could cope with since _he did not know him_. With a determined nod, he decided to forget about it for now and eat his dinner while it was still warm. The Great British Bake Off Show was about to start and he would not miss it for all the money in the world, especially when tonight was the semi-finale. He really hoped Ororo Munroe would face Jean Grey, that promised to be an extraordinary finale and the two girls had become friends thanks to the show so a finale between them wouldn’t be petty.

Charles helped himself then put his plate on his lap to roll back to the living room where he settled comfortably in front of the TV with a smile. His phone was turned off and so was his computer, no one would disturb him while he admired the mouth-watering cakes created by the four competitors.

*

By the time the show was over, Charles was grinning brightly and he had forgotten all about Erik. His two favourites had made it to the finale so next week's episode held promises of amazing cakes and two adorable competitors. And since he liked the two girls equally, he would be happy with whichever would win next week, even though he would also be slightly disappointed for the other one.

Happy with this prospect, Charles lowered the volume and let the TV play in the back while he went to his desk to work. He was tired but he still had to work on his thesis as well as on a presentation for his next TA class on genetics. He mechanically opened his computer to check his emails and froze when he was greeted with about a thousand notifications from Twitter instead of an empty mail box. Eyes opened wide in surprise, he opened a new tab on his browser to check said website and gasped when he realised two things.

One: he had _not_ sent a personal message to Erik.

Two: thousands of people had seen and replied to his tweet.

Amazed by this unexpected outcome and very embarrassed, Charles pushed his work aside to pull the computer closer to him to go over people's replies, his face growing redder with every second. Some replies were mean-spirited of course but most of them were suggesting he go out with Erik, saying it was fate or some mystical power that had brought them together and they should act upon it.

Oh God.

Yep. This was incredibly embarrassing.

Charles really should have kept his mouth shut. Or rather, he should have checked that he had sent a _personal message_ instead of writing a public reply before hitting the send button. Letting out a pitiful groan, Charles buried his face in his hands until a loud biping sound from the computer made him raise his head. Someone had sent him a PM on Twitter, probably his sister to make fun of him for his sudden Internet fame. Ugh. With a sigh, Charles clicked on the message to open it and felt his heart skip a beat when he found a message from Erik instead. He sat up a little straighter and bit his lip nervously as he read the message.

> "Hello Charles, I never expected a message from my ex-boyfriend's new fiancé's ex – I hope to never write this sentence again and to never say it out loud, it’s a mouthful to say but then again it’s not something you write on a daily basis. Glad to see I'm not the only one who has to watch the video every day though.
> 
> I’m guessing you didn’t intend to write a public reply to my tweet so I thought I would PM you instead. Twitter seems adamant that we should date but it seems a little fast, so what about a cup of coffee first? I noticed in your bio that you're a mutant rights activist as well and I'd be interested in exchanging viewpoint on the matter. I hope this is not too weird, I just thought I could try talking to you because the situation is a little bit funny. - Erik Lehsherr.
> 
> PS: I sincerely hope you still live in London or somewhere close or else this is going to be awkward.
> 
> PS2: I have a chess pun too: I tried to buy my opponent's king, but apparently no checks are accepted."

Charles went over the message a few times then a smile slowly blossomed on his face as he realised what was happening and he leaned back with a soft laugh. Erik had replied to him, he wanted to meet over a cup of coffee to talk about mutants and he had made a freaking pun on chess as well. This was unexpected in a very pleasant way. A scowling voice that sounded incredibly like his sister reminded him that he should be careful, that this Erik could be anyone and dangerous, but Charles ignored it. Even if they didn't end up dating, he wanted to meet this man solely because of how incredible such a meeting would be, two men getting in touch because the Internet had fallen in love with their exes’ love story. They might just become good friends, which was very likely since they already shared two common points, and that would be more than enough for Charles. One never had enough friends. And even if this Erik turned out to be dangerous like his sister would certainly fear, well, Charles was more than capable of taking care of him. He could bring him down with his powers. Or simply roll over him.

His decision made, he quickly sent back a reply, telling Erik that he was not in London but could easily get there to meet up for a cup of tea and would love to chat with him. The other man seemed to have been waiting on his reply because not even five minutes after he had sent his message, he got a reply that made his heart speed up considerably. Erik had given him possible dates to meet as well as a few addresses, and offered to pick him up from the train station, which was very sweet and thoughtful of him even if Charles would rather not get in the car of a total stranger on a first meeting. He was naïve but not that much.

Charles immediately checked his schedule, as well as train tickets, then replied to Erik, a light blush on his cheeks. He could hardly believe it. He was hooking up with a total stranger on the internet because their exes had been seen on TV getting engaged. How incredible! He couldn't wait to meet Erik now, no matter the outcome of their 'date', it would be an amusing memory to keep, one that would certainly sooth the pain of watching his ex's happiness broadcast on every channel and website possible.

*

Three weeks and over a hundred messages later, Charles was waiting in an odd, quiet cafe in the middle of London, nursing a cup of tea while he nervously waited for Erik. The other man had texted him earlier to warn him that he would run in late because of unexpected traffic jam but it had been almost an hour ago now and Charles was getting restless. Had Erik gotten cold feet and backed down at the last minute? Charles shook his head at that thought. He barely knew Erik but he already knew he was not the kind of man to stand someone up. Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths to calm down and went over how he should greet him once again while his powers extended a little around him, skimming over people’s dull but soothing minds to help him calm down. The two of them had gotten pretty well over the past weeks and they had both started to make (terrible) flirtatious puns so he was pretty sure their meeting was a proper date but at the same time… Maybe he had read too much into their exchanges? Judging people’s reactions was always harder when he didn’t have his powers. And how would Erik react when he would notice he was in a wheelchair? Judging from the way he reacted whenever they spoke about prejudices and injustices, Charles was almost positive he would not mind but this was different from having a groovy mutation… Oh he was so nervous. He almost felt sick.

An extraordinarily bright mind suddenly appeared at the periphery of his powers and Charles couldn't help but focus on it, irresistibly drawn to it. It was so bright it almost felt like a beacon in the middle of the duller minds that surrounded him. A smile appeared on his face as he picked up on a few thoughts that skimmed at the surface of the mind, mostly curse words in various languages and _'late, late, late'_ behind repeated numerous times. Whoever the beautiful mind belonged to was nervous and very late to his date with... Oh-

Charles opened his eyes just in time to find a gorgeous man stepping inside the café, soaked to the bones, out of breath and holding... a very sad looking bouquet that must have been beautiful before the heavy rain. He didn't need to ask to know it was Erik, who else would come up to a café at ten in the morning on a Sunday with flowers? Smiling brightly, Charles waved at him, his nervousness forgotten for now, and he felt his heart miss a couple of heartbeats when the man's sea-green eyes fell on him. _Fuck_. Erik was beyond gorgeous. He was tall, lean and yet his stance and the way his wet clothes clung to his body suggested he was quite muscled. But it was nothing in comparison to his face, it truly was a work of art. Erik looked like a Greek sculpture, with a strong jaw and soft eyes. Yep, this was definitely a date now, there was no way Charles would not try to-

**_HOLY SHIT. That’s Charles?? HE'S GORGEOUS. Oh fuck he's a telepath, did he hear? Shit. SORRY. But he is gorgeous._ **

The thoughts crashed against his shields and Charles couldn't help but laugh while a blush spread over his cheeks. It seemed he had made quite an impression here; Erik was apparently frozen in place because of him. That was really flattering of course but Charles really wanted to talk to him and properly greet him after all this time exchanging ideas by messages so he offered him a welcoming smile.

"Hello Erik. Nice to finally meet you. If it makes you feel better, I was just as speechless when I saw you stepping through the door."

Erik blinked at him in confusion, looking like someone who had woken up from a daydream, then offered him an embarrassed smile as he walked up to him, his cheeks a little red.

"Hi, yes. Sorry for being late, traffic was an absolute nightmare, I honestly don’t know why I bother to drive in this city, and then once I got there I couldn't get a free parking space but well. I managed eventually."

Charles caught the vision of cars being pushed to the side by the man’s powers and he raised an eyebrow at the Erik, highly amused even though he was trying hard not to grin. "Did you shrink a car to get space for yours?"

There was a pause then Erik squinted his eyes at him, a light smile on his lips. "Maybe? Doesn’t matter. At least I’m there now. And I didn’t destroy the car, I just… made it smaller. Its owner should thank me. It will be easier for them to park in the city now."

Charles stared at him for a few seconds, amazed by the casualness of his reply, then threw his head back as a loud and slightly nervous laugh escaped him. He couldn’t believe it. Erik had used his powers to _shrink a car_ just because he was running late to their date and needed an empty space to park his car. This made him feel weirdly good. It was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done to him. Still though, it was an improper use of his powers and bordering on destruction of property.

“Well, I can’t say I’m not flattered because I am but really Erik, I could have waited a little longer, you didn’t have to do that.” He chided gently.

The other man huffed grumpily in reply then seemed to remember why he was there and winced at the sad bouquet in his hand. “Uh… This was for you but… I crushed it while I was running.” Erik hesitantly handed it to him then he suddenly went still and his eyes jumped to the wheelchair. Ah. He had finally realised that Charles was not sitting on a chair but on a _wheelchair_.

Charles tensed, somewhat worried of his reaction, but he raised his chin defiantly. He could use his powers to search Erik’s mind for how he felt about finding out that he was disabled but he would never do such a thing, despite what most people believed, so he forced himself to wait in silence. **_Erik dislikes prejudices against mutants of all kind_** , he reminded himself calmly, **_if he is consistent with his beliefs then he should not mind_**. Despite his mental pep talk, Charles started biting his lips nervously when Erik frowned but then the other man moved his hand and Charles’ eyes widened when he felt his wheelchair move slightly under him. It felt… straighter and more comfortable than before. “What-”

“You had a bent wheel and some issues in the back so I fixed them.” Erik said then scowled at him lightly as he settled in the seat across of him. “You should have told me about your wheelchair, I’d have picked another location, this place is a nightmare to reach.”

Charles was too surprised by the fact that Erik had _fixed his chair_ to reply at first then he shrugged with a bright smile. “Why? I managed just fine and I got there before you. Just because _you_ couldn’t get here in time doesn’t mean I couldn’t.” He replied with a teasing smile then bent down to get the small chess board he had bought at the train station. This obviously sparked Erik’s interest because he had stopped frowning and he seemed pleasantly surprised by the appearance of the board.

“So, I thought about bringing a parade to remind us of why we were meeting in the first place but then I thought it would be easier to just take a chess board with me on the train so that we could finally see which one of us is the best.” As he spoke, Charles laid out the game for them, placing his cup of tea on his right and the bouquet on the seat on his left to leave enough room for them both. Once he was done, he turned the white pieces to Erik and smiled at him. “I have another set that’s made out of metal back at home, which is much more beautiful and would have given me an opportunity to see you use your powers, but as much as I was looking forward to this date, it would have been a bit too heavy to carry around London.” Charles paused then couldn’t help himself. “And it gives me an opportunity to invite you back to my place one day to… _show you how to mate._ ”

Charles could barely hide his cheeky grin, very proud of his pun, and he beamed at Erik when the man burst out laughing after a second of stunned silence. He had been saving this pun for some time now but somehow their online discussions had never given him the opportunity to use it. Up until now. But he certainly did not regret saving it for today because A) it had made Erik laugh, and B) who was he kidding, Erik was hot and he wanted him in his bed, hopefully in a near future. And judging from the appreciative look Erik was giving him and the thoughts he was projecting, Charles was pretty sure he would not be going home tonight so he mentally patted himself on the back for thinking ahead and packing a small bag with a change of clothes along a few other things.

While Erik ordered himself a cup of coffee and got ready to play, Charles distantly wondered if he should make a post about their date on Twitter to let people know he had followed their advice and met up with Erik. The buzz around them had faded as the weeks had passed of course but he still received messages every other day asking him if he had followed Twitter’s advice. That would have to wait though. For now, he was set on enjoying the day and beating the crap out of Erik at chess.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I really hope you liked it and leave a comment if you did!
> 
> Do let me know if there are mistakes I missed, I had it beta'd it but neither me nor my best friend are native English speakers so we might have missed a few things.
> 
> I'm also so sorry to post this so late but here is my addition to the fest at last!


End file.
